Benjamin Aesthetic Salvation Thought

As one of the most important representative of Western Marxism, Benjamin observed western modern society with his congenital discernment. And then he drew a conclusion expressly that modern capitalism had brought catastrophic aftermath as well as unprecedented substantial civilization. Based on this, Benjamin built his unique theory of aesthetic salvation.According to the development of his thoughts, Benjamin's theory of aesthetic salvation can be caught on from three aspects: At first, the theory of aesthetic salvation focused on lingual "translation". During this period he discussed it mainly on the lay of metaphysics. Benjamin blent the dialectic method of Marxism into his language thoughts, and found the questions of modernity behind language. That is, by dint of language questions, he offered a picture of degenerated human in the context of modernity. For Benjamin, language was the essential factor for human being to gain the salvation from God and the meaning of living. So language's degeneration in the modern civilization of capitalism was not just the degeneration of language itself, in fact, it was the deeply degeneration of human being. Then, Benjamin tried to find the seeds of language and look for the unisonous "tradition" from literature, art, and culture through the way of "translation". Keeping some special solicitude for modern society, Benjamin looked for the way of salvation.Secondly, the theory of aesthetic salvation focused on the writing mode of allegory, which was the kernel of his whole aesthetic salvation theory. For Benjamin, allegory had a trait that its type of literature and meaning was detached, so it was centrifugal in form and had a clastic character. Just because of this, Benjamin considered that allegory could combine some abstract propositions seem to run in the opposite direction such as death and rebirth, remains and paradise, perish and flourish. These propositions could give voice to death and perish, make human being to realize the inanition of earthborn life, and then have the desire and impetus for salvation. So, it became Benjamin's weapon for deconstruction and reconstruction. In his discussions about 17-century German baroque literature and Baudelaire's allegorized poems, Benjamin used this sharp weapon to expose the questions of modern capitalism. In fact, its ultimate target pointed to aesthetic salvation.At last, the theory of aesthetic salvation in which he made modern technology into culture and art. During this period Benjamin tried to put his aesthetic salvation theory into effect and discussed aesthetic functions of modern film in a big way. For Benjamin, film was a symbol of the plebeianization and popularization of art. As a new mode of art, film had no any unique "aura" which existed in the traditional art. When audience watched a film, they did not enjoy the unique aura quietly any longer as they appreciated the traditional art. On the contrary, what film brought to audience was the expression of shake. In such disharmonious world, Benjamin discovered profoundly that the traditional art, full of aura and being viewed quietly, could not affect people living in the circumstances of modernity anymore. No other than the expression of shake could activize people's courage and enthusiasm of revolution.Just because of this, Benjamin admired film very much. His opinions, not in his own times but in the contemporary era, were too idealized.As for its significance, although his aesthetic salvation theory had some Utopian tendency, it had made far-ranging influence on many thinkers coetaneous with him and more posterior literature theorists or aestheticians. And in the contemporary era, it can also enlighten us. His art theory affected many great thinkers such as Horkheimer and Adorno, and is still concerned earnestly by western academe. With his unique mode of thinking, Benjamin always presents himself in the texts and discussions of Western Marxism's postmodern theories such as Terry Eagleton or Fredric Jameson's works, and affected many non-Marxism thinkers such as Susan Sontag and J. Hillis Miller too.